By Alex Novak, Penn State
DUNMORE – Penn State’s Board of Trustees were recently informed of a July 5 acquisition of 451.85 acres of the State Correctional Institution at Rockview from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for $407,570. The property will be used solely for agricultural purposes to further the University’s mission of education related to agricultural sciences. The acquisition also requires the conveyance of a perpetual conservation easement to the Clearwater Conservancy and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Located north of I-99 near the Shiloh Road and Bellefonte exits, the land was conveyed as three separate parcels of 49.57, 223.02 and 179.26 acres. The acreage, which is largely cropland, is a portion of a total 1,829 acres that have been transferred to the Pennsylvania Game Commission (1,211 acres), the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (141 acres) and Benner Township (25 acres), with whom the University has entered into a cooperative agreement. Pennsylvania Act 55, signed into law on July 9, 2010, documented the detail of the transfers to the University and these three organizations.
A technical advisory group with representatives from each of the organizations has been created and will meet regularly to share respective management plans to ensure consistency with the Spring Creek Canyon Conservation Strategy dated spring 2009. If the University attempts to use the property for any other purpose than agriculture, or if the perpetual conservation easement is not conveyed within two years, the property will immediately revert to the Commonwealth.
The purpose of the easement is to preserve the property’s unique natural resources, including the biological resources, native species and their supporting habitats and native species that are uncommon in the Commonwealth. It will further preserve the integrity of Spring Creek and protect the property’s groundwater recharge value and its springs, wetlands and floodplains.
